The present invention is directed to the field of wireless local area networks, particularly those of the type that employ an adaptive directional antenna array for space management. With the increase in wireless traffic, the wireless spectrum has become increasingly crowded, and the task of frequency management becomes more difficult. Unfortunately, a typical deployment uses only omnidirectional antennas and protocol methods to manage a network, which have limitations that permit only limited improvements in performance. Thus, management of space is becoming increasingly important, and promises to improve network capacity, scalability, and quality of service (QoS) performance, and reduce deployment complexity.
Space management can be addressed by an adaptive directional antenna array, which can be used to selectively steer a beam in the direction of a desired wireless client. Similarly, nulls in the antenna pattern can be created to reduce unwanted interference. The management of space using antenna arrays promises to enable far greater wireless network performance than currently available technology.
Many existing antenna array arrangements require a package in which an access point, having one or more antennas, is connected to a network. However, such packages are usually small and not extensible and not capable of spatial management. A number of these access points might be used to obtain a sufficient coverage area but are limited in the amount of capacity they can provide. Also, these access points, at the end of the Ethernet cable have the full complement of AP hardware making them unnecessarily large, complex and expensive.